Preface

As we enter the first decade of the twenty-first century, our perception of project management has changed. Project management, once considered nice to have, is now recognized as a necessity. Organizations that were opponents of project management are now advocates. Management educators of the past, who preached that project management could not work, are now staunch supporters. Project management is here to stay.

This text discusses the principles of project management. Students who are interested in advanced topics in project management, as well as in best practices in implementation, may wish to read one of my other texts, Applied Project Management (New York: Wiley, 2000).

This book is addressed not only to those undergraduate and graduate students who wish to understand and improve upon their project management skills, but also to those functional managers and upper-level executives who must provide continuous support to all projects. During the past several years, management's knowledge and understanding of project management has matured to the point where almost every company is using project management in one form or another. These companies have come to the realization that project management and productivity are related. Project management coursework is now consuming more of training budgets than ever before.

General reference is provided in the text to engineers. However, the reader should not consider project management as strictly engineering-related. The engineering examples are the result of the fact that project management first appeared in the engineering disciplines, and we should be willing to learn from their mistakes.

The textbook is designed for undergraduate and graduate courses in both business and engineering. The structure of the text is based upon my belief that project management is much more behavioral than quantitative. The first five chapters are part of the basic core of knowledge needed to understand project management. Chapters 6 through 8 deal with the support functions of time management, conflicts, and other special topics. Chapters 9 and 10 describe executive involvement and the critical success factors for predicting project success. It may seem strange that ten chapters on organizational behavior and structuring are needed prior to the "hard-core" chapters of planning, scheduling, and controlling. These first ten chapters are framework chapters needed to develop the cultural environment for all projects and systems. These chapters are necessary for the reader to understand the difficulties in achieving cross-functional cooperation on projects and why the people involved, all of whom may have different backgrounds, cannot simply be forged into a cohesive work-unit without any friction. Chapters 11 through 15 are the quantitative chapters on planning, scheduling, cost control, and estimating. Chapter 16 deals with trade-offs on time, cost, and performance. Chapters 17 through 22 cover the more advanced topics in project management, as well as future trends.

The text contains 14 case studies, and nearly 400 discussion questions. In addition, there is a supplemental workbook (Project Management Workbook to Accompany Project Management, 8th Edition, ISBN: 0-471-22579-7) that contains more than 600 multiple choice questions, additional case studies, challenging problems, and crossword puzzles. There is also a separate book of cases (Project Management Case Studies, ISBN: 0-471-22578-9) that provides real-world examples. This text, the wookbook, and the book of cases are ideal as self-study tools for the Project Management Institute's Certification exam. Because of this there are tables of cross references on each chapter-opening page detailing the sections from the book of cases, the workbook, and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) that apply to that chapter's content. An instructor's manual is available only to college and university faculty members by contacting your local Wiley sales representative or by visiting the Wiley web site at www.wiley.com/kerzner. This web site includes not only the instructor's manual but also over 500 PowerPoint slides that follow the content of the book and help organize and execute classroom instruction and group learning.

One-day, two-day, and three-day seminars on project management and PMI certification training using the text are offered by contacting me at 216-765-8090 (E-mail address: [email protected]).

The problems and case studies at the ends of chapters cover a variety of industries. Almost all of the case studies are real-world situations taken from my consulting practice. Feedback from colleagues who are using the text has provided me with fruitful criticism, most of which has been incorporated into the eighth edition.

The majority of the articles on project management that have become classics have been referenced in the textbook throughout the first eleven chapters. These articles were the basis for most of the modern developments in project management and are therefore identified throughout the text.

Valuable criticism was made by many colleagues. In particular, I am indebted to those industrial/government training managers whose dedication and commitment to quality project management education and training have led to valuable changes in this edition.

To Dr. Mark Collier, President of Baldwin-Wallace College, I again express my deepest appreciation and respect for his never-ending support and encouragement toward conducting meaningful research for this text.

What you need to know about… Project Management Made Easy! Project management consists of more than just a large building project and can encompass small projects as well. No matter what the size of your project, you need to have some sort of project management. How you manage your project has everything to do with its outcome.